“This is a major setback,” said Seth Jones, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp. in Arlington, Va., who worked for the U.S. Special Operations Command in Afghanistan last year. Beyond influencing Afghan attitudes, he said in an interview, “it undermines certainly U.S. trust of the Afghans because I’m sure there are going to be concerns about the local reaction.” (source)

Seth Jones said this on day two after the tragedy. Is this the type of response you’d hear from someone who gives a flying fuck about human beings? From an exceptional American, who values life and liberty? What kind of yellow-bellied germ of a human could issue a statement like that?

And then, the beautiful twist at the end, where Jones turns the blame from the US soldier who did the gruesome killing, to the local Afghans who might react negatively to having their women and children killed.

How fearful should the Afghans be of US soldiers? Who’s got more to fear, and lose?

We’d better be concerned about the local Afghanistan reaction. Give us a break. We’d better be concerned with a soldier breaking into village homes and shooting dead women, children, and the elderly. We’d better figure out what’s wrong with our occupation there, and why so many people are getting killed.

Haven’t we ravished that nation enough? Haven’t we killed enough of their citizens to call 9/11 even? I keep thinking of those nine boys who were gunned down by US helicopters. They weren’t even born when 9/11 happened. They were gathering firewood when they were targeted and killed.

If the above quote isn’t enough to make you smile today, here’s a little more of Jones’ sympathy:

…while the shooting was atrocious, Afghans have grown accustomed to violence and civilian casualties after three decades of bloodshed and war. Reports of violence in a remote village might not prompt the same outrage as reports of religious desecration…. “I just don’t think one incident in one area pulls people together like the religious issue does,” Jones says. “They get used to dealing with violence.”

God bless their hardy spirits. Anybody can get used to local massacres and violence done by occupying military forces. It shows the adaptability of the human body, mind, and spirit.